A navigation system, for example, equipped with a vehicle, for assisting a user (driver) for smoothly traveling to the destination has become popular. Such a navigation system detects the current position of the user (vehicle), reads out map data pertaining to an area at the current position from a data storage medium, such as a CD-ROM (compact disc read-only memory), a DVD (digital versatile disc) or a hard disc. Alternatively, such map data can be provided to the user from a remote server through a communication network such as Internet.
While traveling to a destination, a user of a navigation system (ex. a driver of the vehicle) sometimes wants to listen to the music or score of games of favorite sports teams. Particularly, when a football season, a basketball season or a hockey season starts, the user who is a football enthusiast, etc., having a favorite team or favorite players wants to know the score of the game and other associated sports information as soon as the score changes in the game or the game finishes.
For those people who are sports enthusiasts, several commissions such as NBA (National Basketball Associations), NFL (National Football League) and NHL (National Hockey League) provide sports information including schedules of the game, scores of the game, information on players, etc., through communication means such as internet, public telephone network, cellular phone network and some broadcasting service companies including satellite radio stations. Such sports information may also be provided by a sports information service provider to subscribers through the communication means.
However, in order to obtain necessary information, the user needs to select or to access the necessary information through several selection operations while moving to the destination. Particularly, conducting the selection operation for obtaining the necessary information is dangerous for the driver when driving a vehicle. Further, it is also dangerous to receive the necessary information through a cellular phone while driving a vehicle because the driver has to operate necessary key-input process to access necessary sports.
Further, in general, people tend to be interested in local teams of football, basketball, hokey, college sports teams, etc., within the area where the user lives or works. Particularly, when a big game is scheduled in a local stadium or arena of the team, the user wants to know the highlight of the game, score of the game even when he/she is driving a vehicle on the way to the office or on the way to his/her home.
It is possible to listen to the sports radio programs or television programs through a radio or a television in a vehicle while using the navigation system in the vehicle. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-290856 discloses a digital television receiver for such a purpose. The digital television receiver is capable of receiving data broadcasting including information, extracting necessary information from the data broadcasting according to the keyword registered in a memory in advance, and displaying the necessary information.
However, in the digital television receiver, in order to access the necessary sports information, the user needs to control several different buttons or switches on the receiver such as a radio, a navigation system and a television set and tune to the target station. Further, the user needs to listen to unnecessary information, such as advertisement associated with the program with which the sports information is transmitted. Particularly, for sports enthusiast for local sports teams, they always concern games held in home stadiums, arenas and grounds.
It is difficult for them to access all information related to the games held in the local stadiums, arenas and grounds in the local areas while traveling with use of the conventional methods and apparatuses described above. Therefore, there is a need of a new method and apparatus for a navigation system to easily and efficiently receive and view the sports information while traveling.